Deliver or hit the road, Ongwae warns Kisii county staff

Kisii governor James Ongwae has warned that joyriders who do nothing will be sacked.

The county chief told executives they must deliver or be shown the door.

“It is no longer business as usual. You must deliver at all costs. That is my directive,” Ongwae said on Tuesday when he witnessed the signing of staff performance contracts at the Culture Hall.

The governor warned against the tendency among staff to abscond their duties.

“The Deputy Governor and I were given specific a mandate by the electorate. We want to deliver on what we promised. It is either you come to work or resign. It is as simple as that,” Ongwae said.

He made the remarks following concerns that some of the county’s junior staff have been pocketing monthly salaries and allowances without reporting to work, a culture that has hindered service delivery.

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Ongwae told executives they must provide leadership and supervise their departments to ensure better performance.

The chief officers on Tuesday signed contracts with their departmental directors as part of the governor’s measures aimed at boosting service delivery.

Ongwae wants to leverage on his experience as a human resource expert to streamline management of county workers to deliver on his manifesto.

“As an administration, we may have sent the wrong signal that we are lenient and some workers have been taking advantage to abscond from duty. Let me assure you that going forward, my deputy governor and I shall relentlessly crack the whip on nonperforming officers until the culture of satisfactory service delivery is institutionalised,” he said.

The county boss announced that the performance contracting exercise will be further cascaded to officers in lower cadres.

In the new performance appraisal system, officers from Job Group J to Q will commit on their annual output with their directors through agreed performance indicators to be signed early next year.

Ongwae said that his government was keen on service delivery and with the help of the Kenya Devolution Support Programme, a World Bank initiative.

Staff have been trained in an ongoing scheme to improve service delivery.

Ongwae denied performance contracting is a witch-hunt.

Deputy Governor Joash Maangi praised the performance contracting initiative.

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